Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

Fall 12-4-2025

Faculty Advisor(s)

Jocelyn L. Buckner

Abstract

What is the journey? For some, it may be a road to a physical destination. For others like myself, it is a pathway containing failures such as rejection and successes such as booking roles. Sometimes, these failures can challenge our sense of self, leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms. As a deep exploration of self-comparison, self-worth, and rejection in people’s artistic and non-artistic journeys, I created an album called Diary of a Young Actress consisting of self-written songs about these three topics when it comes to my acting journey. Moreover, I read books and articles about people’s perspectives on their journeys and find common themes between my album and their works to shed light on the unglamorous and unseen parts of people’s successful careers.

Ever since high school, I have been rejected from several productions. Coping with these situations was difficult at first as I believed that being in productions was how I can gain validation for my talent. I turned to songwriting as a way to experience a catharsis, helping me to rethink the situation and express my emotions creatively. Here, I began to create a concept album called Diary of a Young Actress. Through songwriting, I was able to grapple with my feelings during difficult situations where I did not get the results I wanted while also celebrating positive moments such as booking roles and finding the joy in playing them.

From this project, I hope other people feel validated when they listen to the album, realize their self worth when faced with rejection, and realize it’s normal to feel inadequate when unfortunate situations happen. I also hope this motivates them to not give up on their journeys. Finally, I hope to create a community where conversations about experiences with topics in my album are fostered.

Comments

Presented at the Fall 2025 Student Scholar Symposium at Chapman University.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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